Let’s look at Cantor’s résumé. Let’s look at all his investment-banking experience. Let’s look at his capital-markets experience. He has none. He has no experience or skills that would qualify him to be even an intern at a fifth-tier firm in the financial industry. ... They’re paying him a guaranteed — you’ve got to love Wall Street, you guarantee money because you can’t fail on Wall Street — they’re guaranteeing him $3.8 million. You don’t guarantee someone $3.8 million because you’re training him to be an investment banker. Wall Street is after what it’s always buying in Washington: access, influence, and unfair advantage.

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To be fair, there's no evidence that Cantor doesn't fully believe in the anti-regulation line he'll be using his influence to peddle. One would at least hope that Lott and Breaux do not strongly believe in a repressive dictator's right to escape sanctions imposed by the United States because he is supporting an armed rebellion against the democratically elected government of a neighboring state.

Update, September 2, 5:10 p.m.:A sentence has been added to this story crediting the Center for Public Integrity for breaking the Trent Lott-John Breaux news.